Challenge - "Build" me a computer

[G~MAN]

well basically if you buy one graphics card now for your SLI mobo and want to upgrade to another one in the future you will have to buy the EXACT same one so it matches all the BIOS settings... you can always get them from the net or on ebay...

what are the specs you have chosen for your computer then

 

[Demagogue]

Memory : Crucial Ballistix 1GB kit (512MBx2) DDR PC3200 2-2-2-6 UNBUFFERED NON-ECC DDR400 2.8V
64Meg x 64 @ £106

DVD : Samsung TS-H352AWBGH 16x48x @ £15.22

Power Supply -- Tagan TG480-U01 480W ATX2.0 SLi Compliant Silent PSU (CA-000-TG) @ £59

Processor -- AMD (Venice) Athlon 64Bit 3000+ Socket 939pin 512k L2cache 90nm Retail Boxed Processor @ £96 -- Ebuyer

MotherBoard -- Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi @ £99.50 -- Ebuyer

==£376

So far, which leaves me with a measly £224 to spend on the rest (including the graphics card!) if I push the budget to £600.

Again I think I need suggestions. I either streamline the stuff I've listed already (which have already been pulled down significantly from the specs you suggested for a gaming system) or I find the rest for that minute £220.

Cheers.

Dem

 

[ChristopherP]

Graphics: X800XL - About £200

Case: Antec Sonata - About £75

Hard Drive: SATA-II about £55

 

[G~MAN]

heres the spec of a computer i am building at just over £600

AMD athlon64 3500+ - £160
Asus A8N sli deluxe - £100
crucial 1gig - £80
samsung 160GB SATA2 - £60
Samsung DVDRW - £30
Tagan 480W - £59
Nvidia 6600GT or X800XL ( i chose the 6600GT as its cheaper and he was on a budget)
Alpine EZ COOL case - £40

obviously you could get an
AMD athlon64 3200+ - £110
and 512MB ram ( for the time being!)

to save you money

G~MAN

 

[ChristopherP]

How do you install the SATA drivers without a floppy drive?

You should buy a 1Gb matched pair of RAM so you can rest assured they will match.

The X800XL absolutely OWNS the 6600GT

 

[G~MAN]

yer i know ... but this guy is on a budget and we have to make sure he stays around it ... you can pick up a 6600GT for around £120 now ... and double it up later in SLi

 

[Edison]

custom pc

How about this, £550.90 inc VAT (now thats damn close to the budget!!). I cheated though and used the config tool here. It doesnt include an Operating System though but its built for you!! the only time I built a PC the Floppy Drive burst into flames! so much for low voltage....

your "link" shows me this ...

Your Final Price

£625.59 ex VAT£735.07 inc VAT

lol, you have design the custom pc to use the drop down menus to tweak it until it gets to the spec i mentioned - Hey they have a whole range of processors and the 7800 card in now... now that would be something else. Nice black case too.... damn, better do a few extra jobs and start saving!

I reckon if you are going to upgrade in the future, then you need a good looking case (i dont like looking a crap things in the corner), you need a good Motherboard (having seen SLi working i really dont think its worth it - i couldnt see any difference!! the frame rate may have been higher but not that my eyes could tell). The rest can be upgraded easily as and when money available. An Athlon64 3000 for now as others have mentioned and 512Mb of Ram (even Doom3 doesnt need more than that).

On the SLi front - GMan; our Admin at work says that if you are going SLi make sure the two cards are from the same batch, any slight differences will prevent SLi working... is that true or is he trying to bull**** me?? he reckons the market is so competitive that often the batches have slight tweaks including different firmware and BIOS versions etc etc. Sounds believable!

 

[Me__2001]

On the SLi front - GMan; our Admin at work says that if you are going SLi make sure the two cards are from the same batch, any slight differences will prevent SLi working... is that true or is he trying to bull**** me?? he reckons the market is so competitive that often the batches have slight tweaks including different firmware and BIOS versions etc etc. Sounds believable!

i've never heard of that but it does sound possible, cards will have different BIOS and firmware but should be compatable

 

[Demagogue]

Xfx GeForce 6600GT PCI-E 128MB DDR3 TV+Dual DVI 080376 41

AMD (Venice) Athlon 64Bit 3000+ Socket 939pin 512k L2cache 90nm Retail Boxed Processor 088105 299

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe S939 NF4 SLI ATX - Sound 2xgln 1394 USB2 SATA 082818 115

Corsair (TWINX1024-3200C2PT) 1024MB (2 x 512MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL2, Lifetime Warranty, Silver Heat Spreader

For £407.60


Samsung DVD - £15

Samsung HD 160GB SATAII - £61

For £483 so far


I've reset the budget to about £550 so I now have approx £70-80 for everything else I need. So far I can see just the power supply and case but I'm guessing there are hidden extras. This is a system being built completely from scratch - I'm not salvaging anything from my old PC and I have no tools etc. from previous builds (this will be my first one!).

I know a powerful supply is needed to keep noise down and ensure all the components above work properly but beyond that I need your help.
I have no real idea about cases. I tried to find the alpine ezcool but couldn't. Again, at a guess, I would say I should be looking at well ventilated cases that fit all the components I have chosen but thats about it. Any advice (with a link to the product)?

Fingers crossed I'll have this ordered before midweek (I've booked a week off work on the 23rd to build it...maybe a little over the top but its a good excuse to laze around).

Thanks for the continuing support everybody.

Dem

 

[Me__2001]

get a cheapie case for now and a tagan, enermax or antec PSU 400W +

 

[G~MAN]

a WEEK lol ... should take you a day at the most ...

owell atleast u can use the time to get down to some gaming!

 

[Me__2001]

heres a decent case, the sonata II Piano black case, it comes with a 450W antec PSU, costs £81.08 plus about £12 postage

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Antec_Cases.html (6th one from the bottom)

you have budgeted for a copy of XP or another OS ?

 

[muckshifter]

Fingers crossed I'll have this ordered before midweek (I've booked a week off work on the 23rd to build it...maybe a little over the top but its a good excuse to laze around).

Yup, a week is about right, but you won't get no 'lazy' time.


For someone, who is quite apt at 'building' PCs, I would say 30mins to build, 38-50mins for OS to install, 2-4hours for the essentials, 1-2 hours updates off the net, done. Go fishing.


Realistically?

Day One.
Open bottle of scotch, taste to make sure it hasn't gone off, pour one glass, and take a swig.

Get all components laid out on sofa, 'cos it's the only place in the house big enough ... take a swig, ah nice.

Open everything at once, throw wrappings into big black bag, take a swig, and re-fill glass.

Open up 'cheap' case to start, cut fingers on sharp edges, go screaming to wife for plasters, make sure you take the glass & bottle of scotch with you 'cos it's going to take at least 7 hours in the waiting room at casualty.


Day two
Search for 3hours for all the components that were on the sofa that the Wife has 'tidied-up', replace back on the sofa, go and get another bottle of Scotch, don't bother with the glass this time as the plaster casts on your fingers makes it impossible to hold the glass ... use a straw instead.

Locate motherboard, yup, I know you know it was on the sofa a minute ago, but I can't help, I'm not there. Find motherboard 'cos you know it is the first thing that needs to be 'installed'

Next hour ... search for the bag of contents, standoffs, screws, silly plastic thingies etc., for the case ... a tip here, put the bottle of scotch under the arm that has the fingers in plaster so that you can continue drinking ... oh, you will find the plastic bag stuck behind the front "sharp" metal plate & the plastic outer of the case.

The bag will tear and all the contents will easily fall out if you shake the case about. Another tip here, shake it over something to collect all the screws etc, so as you won’t loose them.

Spend 3 hours looking for “the black bag” for the "fitting instructions" only to find ... there are none supplied. Another tip here ... there is NEVER any fitting instructions; you did not 'loose' them.

Finish bottle and go to bed.


Day three
First explain to Wife why NOBODY should move anything off the sofa and why you still NEED the dining table.

Drive to the shops for more Scotch, drop into the pub for a quick one.


Day four
Explain to wife where you where all day yesterday and wonder why the scotch ‘tastes’ funny?


Day five
Wonder where wife & kids are, but don't worry, you should have this licked today. Open Vodka as it should not give such a headache. Taste Vodka to see if it needs anything.

Fit MB into case, fit CPU to MB, and find out that it would be easier to fit HSF to CPU if the MB was out of the case, remove MB from case. Refit MB, this time with CPU/HSF into case.

Find the brandy, as by now the Vodka is all gone

Find again that you cannot seem to get the RAM seated, while the MB is in the case, remove, fit RAM, re-fit into case.

Finnish Brandy, go to bed.


Day six
Get another black bag, fill it with all the stuff off the sofa and locate nearest Computer Shop, spend rest of the day explaining why “the kids” dismantled the PC, leave the tech guy a bottle of Gin, it was all that was left in the house.



Day seven
Look for wife & kids

 

[Edison]

ROFL !!

Glad i'm not the only one... actually mine caught fire when i turned it on, so mine ended up at the tip. Now I cheat - choose the bits online, push a button and someone makes it for me! (need to save up for this one now FX57 System ...)

Its the lazy way and for some, not so rewarding, but at least I live this way, dont burn the house down and in my case, save a fortune!

Me_2001, re; - SLi cards must be from same batch - I spoke to our systems admin and he found several references to it on the net including this one i Google'd:- Note *The two VGA cards must be the same model from the same vendor. He had access to some tech support system that i cant get into... but it was quite a big article saying the same thing and that most people with SLi have potentially wasted their money... if i find out more will let you know.

 

[Me__2001]

Me_2001, re; - SLi cards must be from same batch - I spoke to our systems admin and he found several references to it on the net including this one i Google'd:- Note *The two VGA cards must be the same model from the same vendor. He had access to some tech support system that i cant get into... but it was quite a big article saying the same thing and that most people with SLi have potentially wasted their money... if i find out more will let you know.

if you can get a copy of it, i'd be interested in reading it

i know they need to be the same make and model, but how to you make sure they are the same batch ?

 

[G~MAN]

im pretty sure you dont have to get them from the same batch ... the point of Sli is if you feel your system needs a graphics boost you just add another ... at which time the graphics card you bought for £200 now costs 80 ! lol

 

[PotGuy]

stick around for crossfire and you don't have to worry about exact cards - just same product line i.e x800 master card will work with any x800, x850 master works with any x850 etc etc

the only drawback being you have to use ati chipsets - argh!

btw does sata II actually make any real difference? No manufactureres have even taken full advantage of 1.5 gb/s yet, let alon 3gb/s. I ve read somewhere that it makes no difference. dont bite my head off though because i don't have one, just saying what i read

 

[muckshifter]

PotGuy, don't believe all you read, I don't, but I have a lot more time to read more.

It's not all about 'speed', though that is just one "selling" point, manufacturers love to quote numbers, very often misleading numbers.

3Gb/sec sounds impressive ... but there are a whole host of other advantages ... If your in the market for a new system, don't skimp, a GOOD PC aint cheap, so if your new "all singing all dancing MB” can utilise SATA II, then it's a little silly getting an IDE master drive let alone SATA I ... get it right the first time and you'll do yourself a favour.

 

[Me__2001]

btw does sata II actually make any real difference? No manufactureres have even taken full advantage of 1.5 gb/s yet, let alon 3gb/s. I ve read somewhere that it makes no difference. dont bite my head off though because i don't have one, just saying what i read

the only drives that may be able to take advantage are the WD raptors, most drives can only use the bandwidth for bursts of data

 

[PotGuy]

lol sorry if im being an idiot. i only got into the whole custom pc stuff about a month ago, when i decided i would build my own pc, so im still learning some stuff. Maybe i should stop reading so many articles